Looking to make friends and find actual advice which helps

Schmumpy

Hey all,

I have been dieting now for around six weeks, and in that time I have gone from 298lbs to 271lbs, so that is making me feel brilliant, I have gotten over my issue with temptation of pigging out, and although sometimes I do fail, I just get back on the horse the next day, as I said to myself at the start, I will not stop until I hit my target weight.
But anyway my current problem is now, that I have lost some weight and all I do at the gym is cardio, I start off with heading into the sauna, then I swim for 20 minutes, then I hit the tread mil for an hour, then I finish off with another 20 minutes of swimming, but because I have a large stomach, I am worried that the weight I'm losing will make my stomach sag, as where I want it to go firm, so is it time I hit the weights on my stomach I.e doing sit ups or ab crunches?
Please I would be very grateful for any advice anyone could give me to help, and if you'd like to add me I would be happy to accept.

Thanks for your time

Ariel52

Doing some crunches and situps will definitely benefit your abs but generally they are hidden by the excess BF we carry in that area; until that number comes down the ab muscles may be hard to discern. Skin should shrink back down some over time. I'm 52 and my last child was 10 lbs 2 oz so I had a very large belly. I still have a lot of excess skin but it isn't really that noticeable. Sounds like you have made outstanding progress in your 6 weeks. You'll do great!

sunsnstatheart

I strongly recommend just going full bore into weight lifting. You could play around with crunches, long hours of cardio, and what not for a while, then progress to machines, and finally stumble into the realization that free weights and compound lifts are the way to go, or you could avoid all of that pain and agony since many of us have already done that. Give Wendler's 5/3/1 or Strong Lifts a read and consider going that route. I can say from experience that it will save you much wasted effort and irritation.

Good luck and I'm always happy to take a FR and chat.

Cheers!

nikb1983

Feel free to add me if you'd like

I haven't lost a lot (yet) but ive been reading a lot on here and basically what I've learner about sagging is 1) you cant spot reduce 2) a gradual loss (1-2 lbs/week) will help keep things "tight" 3) sometimes, depending on how big you are and how long you've been overweight, there's not much you can do about sagging...I think age plays a roll too, but I've heard it can take a couple years for the skin to bounce back...that being said, I'd rather have sagging skin than this big ol' belly any day.

kf4vkp

Please add me, we're in similar boat about learning to include weights...